Trainees affiliated with one of four parent specialties are eligible: Neurology, Neurosurgery, Diagnostic Radiology, and Interventional Radiology. Neurology pathway candidates would need to complete a vascular neurology or neurocritical care fellowship prior to neurointerventional fellowship. Radiology pathway candidates would need to complete a neuroradiology fellowship or integrated IR/DR residency prior to neurointerventional fellowship. (https://sns-cast.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Neuroendovascular-Requirements-Apr-2026.pdf)
You may also confirm eligibility directly with individual programs.
The length of fellowship will depend on the sponsoring program specification, and on the applicant’s training background. Some trainees will have completed prerequisites that qualify them for a 1-year neurointerventional fellowship (generally 200 angiography procedures as primary operator). CAST program first-year competency requisites can be found here (page 5). The neurosurgery residency training background is most likely to give the prerequisites for a 1-year fellowship length. Many trainees will be pursuing a two-year neurointerventional training position that allows them to build their case volume and experience during this fellowship. They would apply through the Match to programs offering a 2-year track. This most often applies to applicants from Neurology, Diagnostic Radiology and Interventional Radiology.
The Neurointerventional Fellowship Match will be using ERAS (Electronic Residency Application Service, by the American Association of Medical Colleges, or AAMC) to manage the application process. The Match itself will be managed by the NRMP (National Residency Matching Program). To participate, first register for your ERAS Token. Applicants can register for their ERAS Tokens starting on the first Wednesday of June two years prior to the start of fellowship. For example, if starting fellowship in July 2028, the applicant would register for the 2027 match (i.e. Match Day in May 2027), allows them to start building their application on ERAS. Tokens can be requested at the ERAS Fellowships Documents Office (EFDO). Next, build and submit your application. The applicants will mostly work through MyERAS, which can be accessed here. Step-by-step guidance to register for the Match is available on the SNIS website, and can be accessed at https://snisonline.org/matchapplicantinfo/
No. You only need to be registered through ERAS to compile and submit your application and then through NRMP to make and submit your rank list. (See question above)
As noted above, between June and November, two years before you would start fellowship, you can begin building your application on MyERAS. The Match then opens in November, when applicants can submit their completed applications to their chosen programs. Programs are able to begin reviewing applications sent to them in the beginning of December. Interview scheduling is not centralized (see below) and timing varies by program, most commonly between January and March. See the Key Dates table above and always check the live ERAS timeline and NRMP calendar for the cycle you are actually applying in, since dates move every year.
Yes — ranking and the actual matching algorithm are run by NRMP’s Specialties Matching Service, not by ERAS or SNIS. Rank list is typically open on the last week of March and stays open through the last week of April. Match Day follows two weeks later, in mid-May. Refer to NRMP’s Neuroendovascular Match page for the exact dates for each cycle.
SNIS created the Match specifically because the prior rolling-acceptance system created escalating competition, limited visibility (applicants and programs each saw only a slice of the market at a time), and pressure on programs to make early offers. Due to this competitiveness, applicants are applying earlier and earlier during their training, which takes away their focus from their specialty training, and limits both their exposure to the neurointerventional practice, and the opportunity to solidify their CV in preparation for fellowship application. A unified Match gives applicants visibility into more programs at once, gives programs visibility into more applicants, standardizes the timeline for everyone, and is intended to increase overall fairness by removing the incentive to jump on the first offer received.
If a program is a participating Match program, it has committed all of its fellowship positions to the Match and agreed not to make offers outside it — so for those programs, the Match is the pathway. Programs committed to participate at the time of their next opening may halt all application acceptance until the Match cycle that enrolls for the date of their next available training position. There are programs who are not currently participating in the Match, however, and taking applications in the traditional rolling admission style.
As far as applications, ERAS does not impose a cap on how many programs you can apply to. On the ranking side, NRMP’s Specialties Matching Service lets you rank every program where you interviewed and wish to be considered.
For the 2027 ERAS season, AAMC’s published fee schedule was tiered by number of programs applied to: a flat $115 for your first 10 programs, then $17 each for programs 11–20, $20 each for programs 21–30, and $27 each for program 31 and beyond. There are also one-time transcript fees (USMLE Transcript $70, COMLEX-USA Transcript $80, charged once per season regardless of how many programs you apply to), plus sales tax based on your billing address. Confirm the current season’s exact figures on AAMC’s “Fees for ERAS Fellowship Applications” page, since these amounts are set annually.
Expect to need the standard ERAS fellowship packet: CV/ERAS application form, personal statement, letters of recommendation, medical school transcript (MSPE/Dean’s letter where applicable), and USMLE/COMLEX transcripts. Check AAMC’s “ERAS Tools and Worksheets for Fellowship Applicants” and the fellowship-specific FAQ (updated throughout each ERAS season) for the authoritative, current checklist. Applicants for a 1-year program will also need to provide documentation of his or her prerequisite experience. We encourage you to make use of the 6 months leading up to the Match’s opening date in November: Obtain your ERAS token early. As soon as you obtain your token, you may begin uploading each of these documents to MyERAS. Do not wait until the last minute to build your applications!
Interview scheduling is not centralized by SNIS, ERAS, or NRMP for this Match. ERAS/MyERAS is used for application and document delivery only. Each program manages its own interview scheduling and communication — some may use their own tools, but there is no SNIS- or NRMP-mandated centralized scheduling system. Expect to coordinate interview logistics directly with each program you apply to.
This depends on the specific program you are applying to. Some programs will have in-person interviews, some virtual, and some a combination of the two.
Neither is currently part of the Neurointerventional Match. According to ERAS, signaling is only available for applicant pools of the size expected for residency match. In general, there are not enough fellowship programs and positions to allow for a fair process if signaling were implemented, so signaling is not available for any fellowship match. Matching is based solely on the rank order lists applicants and programs submit to NRMP, processed by NRMP’s standard applicant-proposing algorithm — geography is not a built-in factor.
The Match covers entry into a fellowship’s first (and, for the one-year track, only) year of neurointerventional training — you apply to start a specific fellowship position, not to join mid-training.
For ESIR (Early Specialization in Interventional Radiology) graduates and other radiology-trained applicants, whether you’re eligible for a one-year NIR position depends on whether you were able to complete the specific integrated rotations CAST requires for the accelerated track (NICU, neurosurgery, vascular neurology, diagnostic neuroradiology). Applicants should apply in the ERAS cycle whose Match Day/fellowship start date lines up with when they will have actually completed those prerequisites — for most integrated IR/DR residents that is year 5 of a 6 year residency, but confirm the timing against your own program’s curriculum and CAST’s current requirements rather than assuming.
Yes — you should apply to specific listings labeled 1-year or 2-year, so identify which track you qualify for before applying and apply to that track’s listings specifically.
This varies by your residency specialty. Prepare to start the application process two years prior to your neuroendovascular fellowship start date, so that you will go through the Match 14 months ahead of starting fellowship. Below is a map of post-graduate years at the time of the application, for different specialties and pathways, using as example the class starting fellowship in July 2027.
No. As noted above, SNIS explicitly places programs’ ability to sponsor international trainees outside the purview of the Match — the Match does not change or simplify visa processing. If visa sponsorship matters to your application, ask each program directly and as early as possible, since J-1 (via ECFMG) and H-1B sponsorship availability and process vary significantly by institution.
No, there is no SOAP (Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program) for the fellowship Match — SOAP is specific to the NRMP Main Residency Match. Instead, at 12:00 p.m. ET on Match Day, NRMP simultaneously releases a List of Unfilled Programs to applicants who didn’t match and a List of Unmatched Applicants to programs with open positions. From that point, it is up to applicants and programs to contact each other directly to try to fill remaining positions — NRMP is no longer involved in that process.
The same NRMP violation policy applies to applicants as to programs (see the Program Director section above for full detail). In short: NRMP investigates reported breaches through a Preliminary Report and Review Panel process, and a confirmed violation can lead to a Final Report being sent to your medical school, ECFMG, the matched program, certifying boards, and state medical boards; designation as a Match violator in NRMP’s R3 system for one to three years or permanently; and being barred from future NRMP Matches for the same period. Take rank order list certification and Match commitments seriously — the consequences are reported outside NRMP itself.